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Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award - UK Entrepreneur Penny Streeter, Ambition 24hours
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Added: 04/01/2004
Type: Summary
Viewed: 642 time(s)
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Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award - UK Entrepreneur Penny Streeter, Ambition 24hours
Penny Streeter is one of the five finalists in the Veuve Clicquot’s UK ‘Business Woman of the Year 2003’ awards, it was announced today, April 1st 2004. The founder and managing director of Ambition 24hours – with £60 million revenue from the management of temporary personnel after just eight years - Penny is CBI ‘UK Entrepreneur of the Year’ as well as the highest ranked businesswoman, at No.13 overall, in the ‘Management Today: Top 100 Entrepreneurs’.
The Veuve Clicquot UK annual awards recognise the achievements of women in business. Previous winners include Anita Roddick, Body Shop International, Marjorie Scardino, Pearson plc, and Dianne Thompson of Camelot plc.
Ambition 24hours was one of the top ten fastest growing companies for a second successive year in 2003, with a 130 per cent increase in turnover to £52.6 million (source: Fast Track 2003). Veuve Clicquot nominee Penny has led the business since she and her mother Marion set it up in 1996, working on their own from small retail premises in Surrey with office space donated by a friend.
Ambition 24hours is privately owned, all growth has been organic and there are no outside investors. The company has 19 branch offices in the UK, with nearly 200 staff and a further 13,500 personnel that Ambition 24hours recruits and manages for temporary placement in the health, education and social care sectors, as well as for private nursing care at home.
A key feature is the 24-7 service at Ambition 24hours, to meet the need for emergency cover often at short notice of as little as two hours, for example, when an employer’s permanent staff are absent due to illness. The company has only been ‘off-line’ for 17 minutes since it was set up, when it upgraded its IT systems four years ago.
The company first achieved success in providing nurses and care assistants to hospitals. Penny Streeter subsequently expanded the service to include locum doctors, as well as teachers and social workers for clients in the education and social service sectors respectively. Prompted by recommendations from its public sector clients, most recently the company has provided private nursing care direct to the public, in their own homes, for post-operative and specialist care, such as following discharge from hospital.
Ambition 24hours is a major provider of training and career opportunities to women, particularly, those who may have family commitments that make full-time or other temporary employment difficult or impossible.
Many of the carers of friends and relatives, often following a prolonged absence from the workforce, have been able to qualify as care assistants with Ambition 24hours to work in care homes and hospitals, for example. Also the company can offer local work, at short notice, that meets the needs of care assistants, nurses, teachers and social workers with young families, who may be available only at irregular intervals.
Zimbabwe-born Penny came to the UK in 1979 at the age of 12 and started work in personnel after she left school. After a variety of positions in recruitment and other sectors, she founded Ambition 24hours in the mid-1990s. In the evenings, Penny and her mother would move the desks to one side and provide training courses. At weekends she worked as a children’s entertainer, to pay for the advertising space required in order to recruit personnel.
Penny first achieved success when she recognised the need for emergency staffing cover for nurses and care assistants, particularly at night and weekends, when competitors’ offices were closed.
Ambition 24hours quickly developed a reputation as a high quality 24-7 service provider, with Penny taking calls on her mobile at all hours of the day and night including weekends - such as while shopping in the supermarket with her three young children. Following the fast expansion of the business, Ambition 24hours invested in advanced IT systems and a dedicated UK call centre, with experienced consultants to advise clients and schedule support from staff nationwide who are screened and trained to the highest professional standards.
Penny is a regular contributor to TV and radio business programmes as an industry commentator as well as to conferences on entrepreneurial issues. Penny, 36, has four children, the youngest just two years old.
Note to Editors: Print-quality photos of Penny Streeter are available for download
Further information:
Ambition 24Hours, Sentinel House, 16-22 Sutton Court Road, Sutton, SM1 4SY. Tel: South of England: 08707 502 502;
North of England: 08707 557 557
Media Information:
Patrick Rea, Rea-TMA Marketing Group. Tel: 020 8870 4976
Veuve Clicquot: Moira Collins/ Lucy Myners: 020 7408 7430 |
Article Pages: 1
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